Rusty



11-13-94 to 11-1-02

This is a tribute to Rusty - a puppy mill stud - who was rescued from his life of servitude and ended up in the best home. Rusty was a pure bred Rhodesian Ridgeback. He lived with his new family for several years - learning how to be loved by the only human family who showed him love and kindness. He shared the warmth of their home and their hearts.

He sadly made his journey across the Rainbow Bridge on 11-01-02. Rest in peace and love Rusty - Your family will always miss you. One day there will be no cruelty to dogs such as yourself - on that day you will know your life and death were not in vain - Thank you for sharing your life and love with your new family.

The following is a note from his "mom", Sheri:

He came into Rescue from a puppy mill with many other dogs. First reports were that he was dog aggressive, but turned out he just hated the other stud dog there. Never did a cross thing to any other dog, even though he was attacked twice. He did not like men in the beginning, thus lost his first foster home and his first forever home. Was scheduled to be put down, but Michelle couldn't do that to him, as he was too loving to women. We agreed to foster him after temperament testing revealed he was abused & probably by a man, but was a sound dog. I now wonder if the bad things did not finally drive him over the edge, there were obviously many. We agreed to foster him, but set specific rules for him : I would not feed him, I would not play with him; I would not be his person. When he came up to me, of course I'd pet him, but not excessively. We forced him to learn to trust a man, Butch even took him to obedience classes.

He wasn't the brightest bulb in the fixture, but he wanted to make his people proud of him, so he did pretty well. but would never retain enough to compete in obedience, just wanted to be loved. Shortly after completing classes, Butch adopted him from Michelle. She had taken him herself from Rescue to save his life. Obviously, the mills do not care what they are breeding, as Rusty had thyroid disease and so did his mother.